Waste-dumper fined nearly £600

A WOMAN who dumped nine bags of household waste outside the former Pwllfawatkin Civic Amenity site in Rhydyfro, Pontardawe, and then failed to pay a fixed penalty, has been ordered to pay £596.48 in fines and costs by Swansea Magistrates.

Joanne Griffiths, 54, of Station Road, Upper Brynamman, was traced by a Neath Port Talbot Council waste enforcement officer following a complaint that bags of household waste had been left outside the perimeter of the Pwllfawatkin Civic Amenity Site on

Baron Road, Rhydyfro last July.

Mrs Griffiths admitting dumping the bags and was issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice for illegally depositing controlled waste, an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

The fixed penalty notice was for the sum of £400 but if payment had been received within 10 days a reduced amount of only £280 would have been payable.

Despite an extension of time being granted, Mrs Griffiths did not pay the fixed penalty. The matter then went before Swansea

Magistrates, where she pleaded guilty to illegally depositing controlled waste. She was ordered to pay a £64 fine, a £32 victim impact surcharge, plus costs of £500.48.

The court heard that when the waste was deposited, the civic amenity site had closed its gates to the public in favour of a joint Powys-Neath Port Talbot Council site based on the Powys border.

The magistrates were also told that as the bags were placed outside the perimeter fence of the site, they were not covered by the Environmental Permit held there.